Guwahati: Prabajan Virodhi Mancha (PVM), an anti influx body of Assam led by Supreme court lawyer Upamanyu Hazarika, on Sunday blamed Assam chief minister Himanta Biswa Sarma of creating confusion regarding the cut-off date to identify illegal migrants from Bangladesh.

Earlier on Saturday, the chief minister while addressing the media said that while the cutoff date of March 25, 1971, was the official cut off date as per the Assam Accord signed by the state government, he would have prefered the 1951 cutoff date like the rest of the country.

Sarma’s statement came days before the Supreme Court to examine the validity of the Assam Accord cut off date, 25 March 1971 on 14 February next.

“ CM Sarma gave two sets of contradictory views on the issue of cut off date for the grant of citizenship to migrants from Bangladesh. The  CM said that because the then Assam Government signed the Accord, it has to be 1971. But on the other hand, he supports 1951 along with CAA and delimitation. This is nothing but an attempt at confusing the indigenous people by indulging in doublespeak, ” Hazarika alleged.

Hazarika claimed that the sanctity which Sarma assigned to the Assam Accord cut off date was contradicted by his own government policy under Mission Basundhara 2.0.

The senior lawyer claimed that Bangladeshis coming into Assam prior to 2011 were being allotted land in 14 lakh bighas of Grazing reserves. He has modified the cutoff date to 2011, he added.

“When the Illegal Migrants (Determination by Tribunals) (IMDT) Act, was under challenge before the Supreme Court, the then National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government at the Centre and Asom Gana Parishad (AGP) government in the state had supported the repeal of the IMDT Act”, Hazarika informed.

“After the Congress came to power in the state, they changed the state government affidavit to support the IMDT Act and Sarma was a part of that government”, he said.

However, the affidavit of the state government on record before the Supreme Court was filed when Sarma was Assam Accord Implementation Minister in the earlier Congress government supporting 1971, he stated.

Hazarika said that if decided, the state government could file a new affidavit against 1971 being the cutoff date by an affidavit before the Supreme Court.

“Sarma’s actions have always been consistently in favour of Bangladeshis and he makes these confusing statements only to beguile the public”, he further claimed.

On Saturday, Assam chief minister Himanta Biswa Sarma said that the BJP wants to pursue a package where it wants delimitation of constituencies, implementation of the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA), and 1951 cut-off date for the determination of foreigners.

According to the Assam Accord, signed after a six-year anti-foreigner’s movement, led by AASU, the cut-off date for detecting foreigners in Assam is March 24, 1971. AASU led the movement from 1979-1985.

Meanwhile, a constitution bench of the Supreme Court has observed that it will examine the constitutional validity of Section 6A of the Citizenship Act before looking into deeper citizenship matters pertaining to Assam.

Under this section, people who entered India between January 1, 1966, and March 25, 1971, and have been living in Assam, will be allowed to register themselves as citizens.

The apex court was moved by several groups seeking a change in the cut-off date to identify Bangladeshi migrants in Assam.